From The Archives

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TRAIL END WAS the home of John B. Kendrick (1857-1933), former Wyoming Governor and United States Senator. Born in Texas, Kendrick was orphaned at an early age and raised by relatives until he went out on his own at age fifteen. He came to Wyoming Territory for the first time in 1879, as a trail rider on a cattle drive.

In 1891, at the age of thirty-four, Kendrick married a fellow Texan, eighteen-year-old Eula Wulfjen (1872-1961), in Greeley, Colorado. Their two children, Rosa-Maye (1897-1979) and Manville (1900-1992) were both born in Sheridan, but lived their early lives at the OW Ranch in southeastern Montana (sixty miles northeast of Sheridan).


Construction began on Trail End in 1908. After it was finished in 1913, the family had only a short time to enjoy their new home. John Kendrick was elected Governor of Wyoming in 1914 and the family moved to Cheyenne. Two years later, he was chosen to serve in the United States Senate; he and Eula moved to Washington DC. Until Kendrick's death in 1933, Trail End was used primarily as a summer home.


From 1933 to 1961, Eula Kendrick lived at Trail End with Manville and his family. After Eula's death, the others moved out and the house stood empty for seven years. In 1968, when it was about to be torn down, the Sheridan County Historical Society purchased Trail End. They opened the home to the public as a community museum. Ownership was transferred to the State of Wyoming in 1982.


Since that time, many changes have taken place at Trail End: most of the original furniture has been returned, water and sun damage has been repaired, and interpretive programs set in place. Today's visitors to Trail End will not only see the house looking the way it did when the family lived here, but will learn what daily life was like for not only the Kendricks, but the people who worked for and with them as well.?